Prior art fuel leak sensor systems are used in connection with many complex aircraft. Generally such systems comprise an installation of many fuel sensor lines which are routed from various potential fuel leak sources to a common collector. Push-to-test drain valves or similar devices located in the collector are used to determine the presence of fuel. Once the presence of fuel in the collector is detected, maintenance personnel are then required to examine each potential associated fuel leak source to determine which one or ones are responsible for the fuel detected in the collector. If the leak is very slow, and visually undetectable, all of the sense lines are individually capped with plastic bags or other collector containers. Such a system traps the leaking fuel at the particular fuel sensor line associated with the source of the leak, and provides a positive identification of the source of the leak.
The prior art system of determining the source of a leak in an aircraft is effective, but is very time consuming and labor intensive. The present invention is an improvement over the prior art in that it incorporates a visual sensor between the potential fuel leak source and the collector. The visual sensor serves as a collector trap at each potential leak source, and therefore permits rapid identification of the source of any leak.